Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke this morning questioning whether the Department of the Interior (DOI) was aware of Utah State Rep. Mike Noel's (R) significant conflicts of interest in touting President Trump's shrinking last year of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
As the Salt Lake Tribune reported earlier this week, Noel - a leading figure in pushing Trump's move and a vocal opponent of federal land … Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - As President Trump continues to tout his much-criticized infrastructure "plan" - which invests almost nothing in badly needed infrastructure and demands imaginary state and local funding for projects - Republicans at today's Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee continued to ignore the many American communities lacking clean drinking water because of deficient or nonexistent water infrastructure. Instead, Republicans focuses their demands on more water specifically for select f… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) blasted Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke for the announcement late yesterday that the Bureau of Land Management is gutting an Obama-era rule that requires oil and gas companies operating on federal lands to reduce wasteful methane emissions from drilling. The administration's proposed elimination of the methane rule puts the environment, economy, and public health at risk by making it easier for big corporate polluters to di… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today highlighted his bill permanently reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which funds public land acquisitions and conservation efforts across the country, and underscored the bill's 219 House cosponsors as a rebuke to President Trump's budget proposal slashing LWCF land acquisition by approximately 90 percent from fiscal year 2017 levels.
Grijalva's bill, H.R. 502, would pass the House today if given a … Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today said the Trump budget plan's deep cuts to popular environmental programs and failure to address climate change, despite clear national security warnings from his own top military officials, need to be understood through the lens of the Interior Department's ongoing conflict-of-interest scandals and lack of transparency. Grijalva pointed to regulatory carveouts and industry-slanted budget priorities that strongly suggest lo… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) responded to the release of President Trump's "infrastructure plan" that aims to gut fundamental clean water and air protections and puts our children's health at risk:
"This is not a plan, it's not even a proposal. This is a sheet of tired, Republican talking points that blame everything on basic environmental protections and in the end, do nothing," Grijalva said. "Local communities, not big corporate developers who solely ca… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said following the State of the Union that President Trump's push to weaken or eliminate a wide swath of environmental standards in the name of infrastructure development shows the president cares about making rich corporations happy more than Americans' health, incomes or quality of life. Trump's plan to waive environmental laws, reduce public input on projects and provide no new meaningful funding is the opposite of a serious … Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ahead of President Trump's State of the Union address, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva's (D-Ariz.) staff released a year-end report today titled, 2017: A Year of the Resistance to highlight the relentless attacks Republicans in Congress and the administration have made on our country's foundational environmental policies. Republicans have successfully undermined key environmental laws and have introduced new pieces of legislation that put our public lands, waters, clean… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) will ask members of the Natural Resources Committee at tomorrow's hearing on the fate of Bears Ears National Monument to sign a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke urging him to withdraw the land inside the monument's traditional, lawful boundaries from new oil, gas and mining claims. The move comes shortly ahead of the Feb. 2 opening of much of the monument to new extraction claims, which could be maintained even when Presi… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is proud to announce that Lora Snyder will be joining the House Natural Resources Committee Democratic staff on February 12, as the lead on fisheries, oceans, and endangered species. She succeeds Matt Strickler, who recently left the Committee to serve as Virginia's Secretary of Natural Resources.
"Lora is a fighter. She understands what's at stake and is ready to help House Democrats defend our oceans and species," Grijalva sa… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, write in a new op-ed for The Hill that a new report by the Natural Resources Committee Democrats shows clearly how the Department of the Interior (DOI) and its bureaus can combat their sometimes pervasive sexual harassment problems.
The report, #InteriorToo: Addressing sexual harassment across the Department of the Interior sta… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - In response to the Department of the Interior's (DOI) inability to provide concrete details about DOI's five-year oil and gas leasing plan, leading Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee sent a letter to Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) today requesting a full oversight hearing on the planning process and insisted that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testify to provide answers about his efforts. Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Ranking Member of the Subc… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - As Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed the land transfer order today opening a section of wilderness in Alaska's Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to road construction, Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said the move - particularly alongside Zinke's recent lawless tweeting about offshore drilling policy in Florida and the illegal shrinking of Utah's Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument - worsens the damage done to the Inte… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, sent a letter late on Friday to Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke questioning Department proposals that would modify two offshore safety rules. The rules were developed by the Obama administration's Interior Department, based on recommendations from National Academy of Sciences and academia, and discussions with industr… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, sent a letter to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Deputy Director Brian Steed today raising financial and legal questions about a company called EnergyNet, which exclusively manages the agency's online leasing program for oil and gas leases. The lawmakers request a copy of the contract BLM signed with EnergyNet, among other docume… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, sent a letter this morning to Joseph Balash, assistant secretary of the Interior for land and minerals management, questioning the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) decision to withdraw its fracking rule, which lays out environmental and operational safety standards for fracking operations on public lands. The agency admits th… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee advanced the Streamlining Environmental Approvals or SEA Act (H.R. 3133) to the House floor. The bill was passed by voice vote today, but Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) stated that he still strongly opposes the bill and will continue to fight to stop the bill from passing on the House floor.
"My position on the SEA Act remains the same, it's a dangerous bill that was solely written to fulfill the oil and g… Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. - Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said today that the Trump administration's sudden decision not to open the Florida coastline to offshore oil drilling shows how deeply arbitrary and politicized the nation's energy policies have become under Republican control. Grijalva's comments come after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke declared with Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) yesterday - after a brief meeting during which the two men never left the Tallahassee airport[i] - th… Continue Reading